Political Pistachio: May 2015

Sunday, May 31, 2015

Hastert Disaster

By Douglas V. Gibbs

I don't know if the accusations against former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert are true, but I do believe the liberal left progressive Democrats will use it as yet another distraction, or try to paint an entire political party by the actions of this one man. In the end, however, that is all he is. A man. Politicians are nothing more than people we have given position to. Are they role models? Of course not. Are they somehow better than anyone else because they've reached a lofty position in the political community? Not at all. In fact, the Founding Fathers demanded that there should be no preferential treatment for anyone. No titles, no waivers or exemptions regarding the laws on the books, and in the case of politicians no expectations that they are any different than anyone else.

The damaging part of the accusations regarding Hastert, especially if they turn out to be true, is that Hastert (and any public figure for that reason) are in the public eye. The reality is, if they are going to proclaim they are in favor, or against something, they will be under fire if it turns out they are hypocrites. This is true for all politicians, be it a Mayor and First Responder slamming into a car full of cheerleaders while drunk, or Mr. Hastert who has been accused of "structuring" in order to hide that fact that he has been allegedly paying off a sexual abuse victim from his pre-politician life.

He's a Republican, so the media has labeled him as a former shining beacon of morality, defender of biblical standards, and loving husband that is considered a shining beacon of his community. Was. Used to be. Now, a pariah that, in the eyes of the liberal left, is a hypocrite that they believe the rest of the "rightwingers" to be as well.

Dennis Hastert, the longest serving Speaker of the House of Representatives, coming in to take the helm following the Newt Gingrich revolution, was a powerful man. He's a republican, he fought for republican ideals. After his time as a politician, he became a lobbyist. Then, he was accused of "structuring" (withdrawing funds in a manner so that it does not exceed the $10,000 withdrawal limit that, if exceeded, requires banks to report the transaction). Folks talking to the outside world during the investigation say his massive withdrawals were a part of a payment of $3.5 million to cover up bad behavior as a teacher prior to his time as a politician... bad behavior that turns out to be sexual abuse of a student.

Details are sketchy, but the liberal left is jumping up and down with excitement. They love Republican scandals, and have become quite good at covering up, or ignoring, Democrat scandals.

I don't know what Hastert's heart is truly like. I don't know if he is remorseful, or ticked off that he got caught being a pervert. I really don't know. However, as bad as his action are, as a person in the public eye, they are absolutely horrid.

The Bible warns against this kind of betrayal of one's image. Christians are expected to live the Christian life, for example, not just because of the consequences of a sinful life, or because living a sinful life is disobedient to the moral standards provided by The Creator, but because if one claims to be Godly, and then bears fruit that says otherwise, it can be more than damaging to your own image, but the image of those you claim to represent.

When our actions are contrary to our message, they can be catastrophic to the endeavors we claim to be a part of.

Matthew 12:33-37 - Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by [his] fruit.

1 Timothy 4:1 - Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;

2 Timothy 4:3 - For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;

2 Corinthians 6:14-18 - Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?

J. Dennis Hastert betrayed his message, and the Republican Party he was supposed to be an example for is also going to pay the price.

It is assumed his sexual misconduct as a teacher was not only with a student, a minor, but that it was with a person of the same sex. He was, after all, a teacher, and a wrestling coach.

The former student he sexually abused has remained anonymous, as has anyone that has talked. There is a federal investigation going on, after all, regarding this. The withdrawals in question total $1.7 million so far. Hastert was questioned because some of the withdrawals evaded banking regulations. Then, when asked about why he was making the cash withdrawals, Hastert lied to the federal agents questioning him in order to cover up it was all hush money to keep his sexual abuse victim from going public.

Hastert hails from Yorkville, Illinois, a conservative town removed a good distance from the murderous madness of Chicago. "Denny" was an honored member of the community, from bringing home a state wrestling championship, to being a powerful member of the political community. The small town is now "a little shocked."

We'll see how this turns out. It'll probably be a disaster for Hastert. Hopefully, the Republicans don't dwell on the distractions, and the voters realize this is a grievous error by a man long ago, not an entire party. The Democrats hope that the Hastert Disaster is something they can build on. Something they can use against the Republican Party as a massive collection of presidential candidates battle for position in the 2016 race for the White House. I think the voters are smarter than that, and will instead vote out of the presidency the political party that represents tyranny, oppression, and everything the Constitution was designed to protect us from.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary

When Good People Do Bad Things - Political Pistachio

Alan Long is a First Responder, and Should Know Better - Political Pistachio

Lab Results Are In: Former Murrieta Mayor Alan Long Charged with Felony DUI - Political Pistachio

Structuring - First Kent Hovind - Now Dennis Hastert - Forbes

Sources: Dennis Hastert cover-up for sexual misconduct - CNN

Yorkville, Where Hastert Taught, Is Shaken by Charges for "Denny" - New York Times

Scott Walker: "I'd Reverse Obamnesty & A Lot More"

by JASmius

I'm not alleging that nobody else in the 2016 Republican presidential field would rescind all of Barack Obama's illegal, unlawful, unconstitutional Executive Orders and "memoranda"; I'm sure that Ted Cruz, Bobby Jindal, Rick Perry, maybe Ben Carson, and perhaps a few unspecified others (though NOT Jeb Bush) would do just that.

But I'm pretty sure no other GOP "hopeful" has come right out and baldly and publicly promised it:

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker said Sunday he would reverse a lot of President Barack Obama's actions if elected president.

Appearing on The Cats Roundtable on AM 970 in New York, Walker, who is considering a White House run, said the first three things he would do as president would be to pull out of Obama's "horrible" nuclear deal with Iran, reverse Obama's executive order on illegal immigrants and work with Congress to achieve reforms that "put power back in the hands of the states."

And his several dozen extralegal ObamaCare tweaks and his national water confiscation and all the other EPA power grabs of the past six-plus years and so much more. I've long warned that any conservative successor to The One is going to spend his/her presidency digging out the country from under the horrific damage - legal, political, cultural - that Barack Obama has done to it. Even two terms won't be enough time for the magnitude of the undertaking; this will be the work of a generation, even if O leaves when he's constitutionally supposed to 599 days from now, given that Democrats will be bitterly resisting the healing every step of the way.

Not unlike the rabid, raging way they fought Governor Walker's Big Labor-breaking reforms in Wisconsin four years ago. And yet he persevered, slayed the Leftist beast, pushed them through, and fiscally and economically resurrected his State....and launched, perhaps, a momentous presidency at a critical time in American history.

Oh, sure, I know, this isn't an Avengers movie. There are no "supermen" (or superwomen). Even Ronald Reagan, thirty years ago, only managed to buy America a decade's reprieve before it resumed its suicidal march towards the metaphorical waterfall (though the economic and national security benefits lasted a full generation). As I say, truly and permanently changing the nation's direction away from statism and back towards constitutionalism and getting it back within the founding document's enumerated boundaries is the work of generations (if it's possible at all) and will likely entail national calamities that will make the (First) Great Depression and World War II look like a Sunday church potluck. All of which illustrates that that work belongs to Us, The People, and isn't something that can be subcontracted out to any politician with a magic wand. Hell, the latter is how we got ourselves into this mess in the first place.

But, as the saying goes, "a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step". And Scott Walker has proven, as nobody else in the 2016 GOP field ever has, that he can and will take those steps back towards the "new frontier" that the Founding Fathers first took 228 years ago - with a rocket pack in his hindquarters.

Iranian Proxies Capture At Least Four Americans In Yemen

by JASmius

Remember when enemies taking Americans hostage used to be a big deal? Good times, good times.

The Obama Regime closes our embassy in Sanaa and flees the country in pell-mell retreat three months ago - or, the "model for counterterrorism" - and voila! It's "American season" for our Iranian/Shiite "friends":

Several Americans have been detained in Yemen, a State Department official said Sunday, amid reports that at least four U.S. citizens are being held by Shiite rebels.

The Washington Post reported that the Americans were believed to be held by the Huthi militia in a prison near the capital Sanaa, and that U.S. efforts to secure their release had faltered, hampered by the fact that Washington has no direct links to the rebels....

And that the "rebels" are so contemptuous of us that they have utterly no incentive to heed our plaintive pleas.

"We are doing everything we can to get these individuals released," the official said, but would not say how many were held or who was holding them.

Or what they're actually doing to get these individuals released. Which is probably nothing that can actually accomplish that goal, like redeploying U.S. special forces to rescue them by force, because that might upset the nuclear sellout to the Houthis' Iranian patrons.

"The protection of U.S. citizens abroad is a top priority," he added, saying for privacy and safety reasons no further information could be given.

<snort>

Also notice that for the Regime, "the protection of U.S. citizens abroad is a top priority," not the top priority. Which means it's not a priority at all.

U.S. officials, quoted by the Post, said none of those held were U.S. government employees.

The only sort of hostages they might give a damn about trying to liberate.

Three of the prisoners were believed to work in the private sector, while a fourth was a dual US-Yemen citizen.

The first three, at least, are dead men.

Saudi Arabia, aided by U.S. intelligence, has been leading an[other phony] air war since March 26th, targeting the Iran-backed Huthi Shiite rebels.

I'm guessing the termination of aid from U.S. intelligence will be the ransom price. Or maybe that and the USAF providing air cover for the "rebels" and shooting down Saudi fighter/bombers. Heck, we're already serving as the mullahs' de facto air force in Iraq and Syria. This wouldn't be much of a stretch.

My advice, my fellow Americans: Don't travel abroad. Because if you do, you'll be completely on your own.

In British Columbia, They're All Androgynes Now

by JASmius

Question of the day: How and why is it that people who claim to worship reason and science have such an inbred hostility towards climatology and genetics?:

The Human Rights Tribunal in British Columbia will consider completely eliminating gender designations from birth certificates in response to complaints from the Trans Alliance Society (TAS) and other transgender individuals, according to an article in the National Post.

According to the complainants, we need to stop acting as if doctors can tell the sex of a baby just by looking at the baby’s genitals.

Birth certificates [may] give false information about people and characterize them in a way that is actually wrong, that assumes to be right, and causes people . . . actual harm,” said transgender woman and TAS chair Morgane Oger.

Morgane Oger is a man. I'm sorry if he doesn't like that designation, but that doesn't change it. And it's not just about "looking at a baby's genitals". A newborn's "junk" is an outward manifestation of an immutable genetic reality that was laid down in Genesis 1:27: "God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them." Those are the only two options - XY or XX. God made us this way so that, as He laid down in Genesis 2:24, "For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh."

Simple. Sublime. Functional. Magnificent. And has stood the test of time for over six thousand years, as one would expect of God's perfect creation.

Here's how the LGBT perverts are going to re-write Genesis 1:27:

Gaia created hermaphrodites in Hir own image, in the image of Gaia S/he created hir; agender, androgyne, androgynous, bigender, cis, cisgender, cis female, cis male, cis man, cis woman, cisgender female, cisgender male, cisgender man, cisgender woman, female to male, FTM, gender fluid, gender nonconforming, gender questioning, gender variant, genderqueer, intersex, male to female, MTF, neither, neutrois, non-binary, other. pangender, trans, trans*, trans female, trans* female, trans male, trans* male, trans man, trans* man, trans person, trans* person, trans woman, trans* woman, transfeminine, transgender, transgender female, transgender male, transgender man, transgender person, transgender woman, transmasculine, transsexual, transsexual female, transsexual male, transsexual man, transsexual person, transsexual woman, two-spirit [gaaaaaaasp] S/he created them.

I wouldn't even know where to begin translating Genesis 2:24 to this pagan insanity other than to mention that there would be plenty of "flesh".

Gender has psychological implications, but gender itself is purely genetic. It isn't volitional. It can't be changed. There's not a pill you can take. There's not a class you can go to. Gender is for-evah. And there are only two: male and female. They're not "fluid"; they're intractable. That's how God ordained it. Or, if the scales haven't yet fallen from your eyes, that's how we "evolved". Because any "species" with fifty-eight [BLEEP]ing genders is bound for extinction for no other reason than because its members will all croak before they can ever manage to straighten out how to propagate themselves. And, of course, because their congenital cranial-rectal impaction makes copulation (whatever that is in a fifty-eight gender context) physically impossible.

Or, in plain, non-LGBT English, Morgane Oger and the British Columbia Human [?] Rights Tribunal are nucking futs, and are using the power of the state to force everybody into their pagan insanity from conception.

And not just there.

Kinda informs the stakes of the SCOTUS's upcoming sodomarriage ruling, doesn't it?

Free Speech

By Allan McNew

The progressive movement is all about freedom of speech – unless the speech is something progressivism disagrees with. Then the gloves come off from slander and vilification to ostracism, ridicule, shout down, sabotaging the ability to make a living, and sometimes even to vandalism, assault, and other crimes. It's the intolerance of ideologues who call for tolerance. Those progressives who are so involved might just as well cast off the pretension and wear pointy hats and sheets while burning upside down, broken beam crosses in offenders' front yards.

A major way the left shuts down discussion is by redirection to another subject which is then hammered on as some form of bigoted social injustice.

For example, if one believes that the nation is not sovereign without enforced borders, the issue is redirected to race with allegations of hate. If one objects to President Obama's domestic policies, it is spun that the objector is a race hater who can't stand that a black man resides in the White House.

Or if it is pointed out that nearly every progressive politician on Capitol Hill is a capitalist pig concerning his own interests, a poser in progressive clothing mouthing the right words to rouse the base while taking money from the very same rich people and corporations he trashes and/or is the very same abusive employer and exploitative businessman he denounces, the redirection is an allegation that a former Republican Speaker of the House is gay - a flaccid attempt to change the subject from greed driven, progressive base deceiving Democrat politicians to Republican homophobia. It's not good for the elite progressive agenda (which differs from faithful progressive follower expectation formed by orthodox progressive belief) to discuss the truth behind gaining the power of unchallenged progressive political supremacy, which smells like a formative oligarchy.

A progressive oligarchy differs from a robber baron capitalist oligarchy only by the manner in which it is established. There will be an impoverished, very large and dispirited slave class dominated by a small yet obscenely wealthy privileged class. There will be no middle class, and true believer, progressive foot soldiers will have been duped into facilitating despotism.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary

Battlestar Galactica: Resistance (S2E4)

by JASmius

Rating: ***1/2

Written by Toni Graphia
Directed by Allan Kroeker

Just like I concluded last week - "from the frying pan into the fire"; "metastasizing insanity." Or perhaps nothing more complicated than the delayed but inevitable chaotic reaction to humanity's Armageddon.

Season #1 of Battlestar Galactica can, in retrospect, be seen as a sort of culture lag. Tom Zarek, ironically enough, gave voice to this observation in "Colonial Day" during his bid for the vice presidency:

He talks about people clinging to their old jobs and old lifestyles - all the things, of course, that Zarek, as a "revolutionary," has always railed against - in a situation in which neither are relevant anymore. He speaks of the holdover mindset, which exists as a sort of mass security blanket for the people to cling to in a situation of disaster and free fall, as a lie that must be repudiated if "the people" are to survive. He talks about an economy with no money, lawyers with no clients, businessmen with no businesses. In short, he makes the status quo look and sound utterly foolish.

I then tossed in an additional insight:

Remember, Roslin doesn't only represent "the past," but she also is the face of the government that allowed the Cylon holocaust in the first place. It wouldn't matter that she had nothing personally to do with that, that she was a lowly education secretary forty-third in line of succession, or that nobody except a certain perpetually horny genius knows just how Colonial defenses were compromised so suddenly and comprehensively. A public just emerging from a state of shock would be eminently mobilizable toward whatever direction a skilled demagogue wanted to direct them.

Mr. Zarek recognized all of this because, as a dissident from that culture, he stood outside of it, and thus it was far more obvious to him than it would have been to anybody else. The greatest irony, and what makes the current storyline so brilliant, is that it is President Roslin herself, via her newfound (and ironic in its own right) role as a religious messiah, who has become the "skilled demagogue" who is mobilizing humanity's survivors in a direction that none of them, or she, would ever have dreamed of before the Cylon holocaust.

And to put the cherry atop the dramatic sundae, it is Mr. Zarek whose uneasy ally and co-conspirator Roslin becomes in the effort to thwart Adama's, and now Colonel Tigh's, military coup.

My advance apologies of my observations of Tigh's behavior and actions seem redundant given what I've written of him in recent reviews, but in a secondary sense I'm being swept along by the narrative right alongside him. Last week he declared martial law after having told the Quorum of the Twelve that Adama had no intention of doing so. And now we see the results, that seemed a lot more surprising to Tigh than they did to me.

The XO clearly isn't much of a thinker and is utterly lacking in empathy. That's one of the things that makes him so weak, which explains his alcoholism and his susceptibility to the henpecking of his ambitious nympho wife, Ellen. Unfortunately for Saul, Ellen persistently bullies him in the wrong direction.

Some ships in the fleet start protesting martial law by refusing to resupply the Galactica. Tigh is dumbfounded, having apparently genuinely believed that by declaring martial law the fleet would come under his direct command and they would simply follow his orders. Hey, I did say he had a political tin-ear.

To give him his due, he considers sitting down with the captains of the dissident ships and explaining why he had to declare martial law. Having seen his attempt to do that with the Quorum of the Twelve last week, I doubt that would have accomplished anything except to make matters even worse, but it wasn't a bad impulse in and of itself. But Ellen won't hear of it; she reinforces every bad instinct he has, haranguing him that "they can't defy your authority" and that he should send in troops to "restore order."

So that's what he does. He deals with a situation of tension-laden civil unrest by introducing armed soldiers into it. Anybody - well, okay, anybody [fifty] or older - who didn't immediately think "Kent State" stand on your head.

Tigh, of course, has never heard of Kent State, but there must have been a Colonial equivalent sometime in its history. Apparently he never heard of it, either, and is thus taken by surprise again when his "show 'em who's boss" decision turns into what President Roslin calls a "travesty" resulting in several civilian deaths. I, however, called it "Tigh is Marianas Trench-deep in over his head."

Had Tigh ever stopped to consider how this whole debacle, going back to "Kobol's Last Gleaming" looked from the standpoint of an average civilian in the fleet, he might have gotten a glimpse of just how deep the public relations doo-doo in which he's buried really was. Roslin, however, knows exactly how deep it is, and how strong her political hand is, and uses this massacre as the impetus to act.

With Apollo's help, and of course that of her sympathetic guard, they escape the brig and make their way to the landing bay in order to commandeer a Raptor and get off the Galactica. "How could they possibly hope to pull this off without being detected?", you may be asking. The answer is simple, and shows how far the political momentum has swung back in Roslin's favor: with the active collaboration of most of the battlestar's crew.

Dualla processes their off-ship transmissions. Gaeta notices it, but denies any knowledge of same when Colonel Tigh directly asks him about it. Remember, these are the same people, Dualla in particular, who were solidly in Adama (and Tigh's) camp just a couple of episodes ago. When Tigh told a comatose Adama that he'd "really frakked things up" for him, he wasn't kidding. The tragedy for him, I suppose, is that, like a spider being eaten alive from the inside by wasp larvae, he was aware of it the whole time it was happening, because he knew it would happen all along.

But while Tigh might be a hardass and an authoritarian, there are still lines across which not even his wife can push him.

One such moment for a nameless guard happens when Roslin and Apollo (and Special Assistant Billy) reach the door to the landing bay. She has orders to prevent precisely that with which she is now confronted. But Roslin won't back down; she tells the guard, quietly but firmly, that either she is going through that door, or the guard has to shoot her. There are no other options.

Faced with that impossible conundrum, the guard did what any of us would have done - she relented. Roslin's party boards the Raptor, only to have Billy announce that he's not going on the grounds that being a fugitive is a line that he will not cross. Or something like that. It was a bit curious, but then I still think he's staying in order to finally make it with Dualla.

When Tigh learns of Roslin's and Apollo's escape, he is incensed. When their Raptor is detected, he sends a Viper squadron after it. When Apollo won't heel to, Tigh orders shots fired across his bow. When Apollo still won't alter course, Tigh is brought face to face with the same choice as the guard outside the landing bay: assassinate the President of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol and Commander Adama's son, or let them go.

And he, too, bows to the inevitable. He's a soldier, not a murderer. Though there's still the doubt of what he might have done if Apollo hadn't been in the Raptor.

Ellen isn't happy, of course, so much so that she escalates from shoutingly berating Saul to slapping him around. Saul slaps her back, and they end up doing it right on the floor of their quarters. Not exactly Leave It To Beaver, huh?

This jailbreak is, nominally, the A-story track. But the secondary thread is compelling, megatragic, and chillingly gripping.

When Chief Tyrol's group returns to the Galactica from Kobol, he is immediately and summarily thrown in the brig by Colonel Tigh. Why? Because he is Boomer's ex-lover. You know, the Boomer who is a Cylon and blew two big holes in Commander Adama. Tyrol wasn't aware of any of this, of course, since that happened while he was gone. But in Tigh's mind, guilt by association is guilt nonetheless. And it's guilt that he is determined to force out of Tyrol if he has to beat the snot out of him to get it.

Quite a welcome home for the Chief, isn't it? After going through the whole ordeal on Kobol, he is accused of being a Cylon and imprisoned in the same cell as his former squeeze, whom he now learns is a "toaster."

What makes Tyrol such a great character is his "everyman" quality. He's a lot like Chief O'Brien on DS9 - a good, decent, average blue collar man with whom just about every viewer can identify. This enhances his accessibility for the viewer. The reactions he displays to extreme situations are just what you imagine would be your reactions in his place.

Here, Tyrol is a massed jumble of emotions - dashed relief at going from castaway to falsely accused prisoner; righteous and incredulous indignation at being called a Cylon; and revulsed betrayal at discovering that the woman he thought he loved is an enemy machine. That reaction only adds to Boomer's despair, since despite all that has happened she doesn't feel like a Cylon, and now the man she still loves is rejecting her as well.

In a very real sense Boomer's plight is worse even than Borg assimilation, in that whereas in the latter one's individuality is erased and one becomes a passive observer to an alien consciousness controlling their actions as well as radically altering their appearance, Boomer looks and sounds, even and perhaps especially to herself, like the person she's always been. And yet she is universally regarded and treated as a pariah, a monster, and the nightmare, as she has known going back to “Water," is that she knows that there's something deep down inside her that is precisely that. Her "enemy within" has turned her one-time friends and comrades into enemies without, and now Chief Tyrol has joined them.

But it is the man who knew she was a Cylon before anybody else that exploits this horrifying duality in a scene as riveting as any I can recall since Elim Garak's torture of Odo in DS9's "The Die Is Cast".

Baltar, wearing his scientist's hat (and fresh off of blowing a hole in Crashdown), visits the unhappy couple on the ostensible pretext of administering his Cylon-detector test to Tyrol. Instead he injects the Chief with a deadly and quick-acting toxin and demands to know from Boomer how many other Cylons are in the fleet before he'll administer the antidote.

Frantic, Boomer exclaims that she doesn't know. And on a conscious level, she doesn't; but buried down deep in her Cylon programming, she does, and Baltar knows this, just as he knows that imperiling the last shred of hope in her shattered life is the only thing that can penetrate to that depth to dredge up the information he seeks - a lesson in emotional brutality that his own succubus, Number Six, has taught him well.

The pressure and intensity are overpowering. Boomer is apoplectic, can't believe this is happening, can't believe what Baltar is doing, time is running out, Tyrol is slipping away, oh my gods what am I going to "EIGHT!," she suddenly shrieks, "THERE ARE EIGHT OTHER CYLONS IN THE FLEET!" Baltar gives Tyrol the antidote, saving his life, but her living nightmare just got worse as, unlike when she shot Adama, in this manifestation of her buried but dominant Cylon nature she didn't blank out, but was a conscious and lucid witness to it.

Later, Baltar returns to take Boomer with him. When Tyrol asks why he's taking her, the veep replies that he's going to conduct "mental and physical tests" on her. "Like a lab rat?" Tyrol replies in shock. Yes, like a lab rat.

Tyrol by this time is more confused and conflicted than ever. He is shamed by having fallen in love with a machine, angry and resentful against Boomer for that manipulation, but not so much that his decency and innate moral sense are desensitized. He doesn't know how to feel about Boomer, but neither does he want anything bad to happen to her - and medical experimentation would certainly seem to qualify.

But while that might seem "ugly," it is also brutally pragmatic - and absolutely necessary. The other "evolved" Cylons have known who and what they were and actively deceived their human prey; Boomer is the first "deep cover" version they've encountered, programmed not just to look and sound and feel human, but to itself believe that it is human. They are unwitting walking time bombs and the humans have to learn everything about them ASAP before even worse things happen than the near assassination of their military commander.

It is literally a matter of survival, life or death. But that doesn't make it any less wrenching for the parties involved.

The ensuing transfer of Boomer to Baltar's lab is shot in appropriately surreal atmosphere. Galactica crew members line the corridor, hooting and jeering at her, their voices and angry faces blurred and streaked together in her perception. It came across very much like a nightmare, actually.

If it also had you thinking “Jack Ruby," go to the head of the class.

Callie - sweet, innocent, little Callie - Chief Tyrol's elfish assistant, hasn't had a very good last few days. From the crash landing on Kobol, to watching one of her crewmates mowed down before her eyes, to being ordered to sacrifice herself to the Cylons as cannon fodder, to having Crashdown nearly blow her head off, and now her outrage at seeing the Chief falsely accused and tossed in the brig, this "little girl" was all set to go postal. And does she ever. Lunging from the jeering mob, Callie shoots Boomer through the heart, thus closing the most vicious of circles that began with Boomer's shooting of Adama.

As she utters her dying words to Tyrol - "I love you, Chief" - the camera zooms in on a drop of her blood as it falls to splatter on the deck, just as Tyrol's did in the brig at Colonel Tigh's hand in the ep's opening scene. But the emotional context is the diametric opposite. For now he is no longer disgusted by her very presence, but can only comfort and hold her as she dies.

This is powerful stuff.

We also get an update from "Cylon-occupied Caprica," where Starbuck and Helo discover that there are other humans on the planet after all, and they have the same armament, 'tude, and fondness for pro pyramid as she does. Which telegraphs the love interest between Kara and the group's leader, Anders, but heck, it's been days since she's had any, so I'm inclined to cut her a break.

Overall, the big questions still remain, however: what form will Roslin's counter-insurgency take? How will the military counter it, or will they? Is a rapprochement, a closing of this gaping breach possible? And how far will Roslin herself take this "messiah" persona/mission?

When Adama pulls a very nice swerve by making his gingerly return to ask Tigh, "What's been going on on my ship?" you're tempted to think that he will be the voice of sanity who will bridge the rift and heal this wound. It's so effective that you almost forget that it was Adama who, together with Roslin, ignited this quasi-civil war in the first place. Then Adama soothingly reassures Tigh that they'll "pick up the pieces together," and the memory comes rushing back.

It reminds me of Chancellor Gowron's comment to Captain Sisko in "By Inferno's Light":

Think of it - five years ago no one had ever heard of Bajor or Deep Space Nine. Now all our hopes rest here. Where the tides of fortune take us no man will know.

Ditto the "last battlestar."

Next: Adama finds out the scope of Roslin's counter-revolution, and Starbuck discovers a hideous secret.

Constitution Study Radio (Ep. 02): Introduction to the Preamble

Constitution Study Radio (Ep. 02): Introduction to the Preamble

In our second episode of 2015, we are going to address the construction of the Preamble, with an examination of the text itself next week.

Join Douglas V. Gibbs each week here on Constitution Study Radio.

Doug is an instructor, AM Radio Host, author, and columnist all regarding the United States Constitution from an originalist point of view. www.douglasvgibbs.com

Original Showtime: 5/31/2015 at 9:00:00 AM 30 minutes

Beau Biden Dies Of Brain Cancer @ 46

by JASmius

Thirteen years, three weeks, and two days ago, I miraculously totaled a rental car. The miracle was that I survived, because it took place on a freeway when I lost control of the vehicle, and it smashed into a hedge in the center median, which prevented me from crossing the median and shooting into head-oncoming traffic and maiming or killing myself and God knows who else. That hedge was also the only such obstruction for miles in either direction.

As I say, a miracle.

And it happened so fast. They say that your perception of time slows down when you're in an automobile accident, and that's true - when you're a passenger. When you're behind the wheel, perception of time speeds up. Once femtosecond I was commuting to work, reaching blindly for a soda in the cupholder in the unfamiliar interior, the next I was facing 120 degrees the opposite direction with an airbag deflating in my face.

My mother's death was just as quick. One moment she was watering plants in her front yard, the next she was face-down on the sidewalk in front of my parents' (now former) house, dead of a cerebral hemorrhage.

It brought home for me just how true it is that every moment could be your last, and that "sudden death" isn't just a football term.

And then there's major health problems at a comparatively young age. I was forty-six myself when I had my hypertensive urgency episode. I had no idea what I might be looking at - maybe open heart surgery? (which I was, mercifully, spared) - all brought on by not taking care of myself and foolishly ignoring the signs of something I unquestionably did see coming and simply ignored.

I don't know if Beau Biden ignored any symptoms. But, sadly, there were no miracles for him:

Vice President Joe Biden announced Saturday that his son, Beau, has died of brain cancer. Beau Biden was forty-six.

"It is with broken hearts that Hallie, Hunter, Ashley, Jill and I announce the passing of our husband, brother and son, Beau, after he battled brain cancer with the same integrity, courage and strength he demonstrated every day of his life," the vice president said in a statement late Saturday.

"The entire Biden family is saddened beyond words. We know that Beau's spirit will live on in all of us, especially through his brave wife, Hallie, and two remarkable children."

One thing I've never had to experience is the loss of a child. Every parent naturally assumes that their kids will outlive them. It's the cycle of life. For a son or daughter to pass on first....I can't imagine it.

Generally what comes out of Barack Obama's mouth is the vilest fecality, but, whether he meant them or not, we at Political Pistachio endorse, second, and share these words and the sentiment they express:

"Michelle and I humbly pray for the good LORD to watch over Beau Biden, and to protect and comfort his family here on Earth," Obama said.

If only the younger Biden could merely have broken a leg.....

Saturday, May 30, 2015

How About Walker-Rubio 2016?

by JASmius

That's what the latest Bloomberg Politics/Des Moines Register Iowa Poll is presaging:

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has expanded his early lead in Iowa, while former Florida Governor Jeb Bush continues to face headwinds and Senator Marco Rubio of Florida shows upside potential in the state that hosts the first 2016 presidential nomination balloting.

Walker front-runs with 17%, followed by Rand Paul and Ben Carson at 10% each. The rest of the blundering herd is in single digits.

All the caveats apply, of course: Ballots won't be cast for another seven months, caucuses are more difficult to poll than primaries, and Iowa hasn't been a bellwether on who the eventual nominee will be in, like, forever.

That being said, the survey has some intriguing details:

[M]ore than a third of likely Republican caucus participants say they would never vote for [Jeb] Bush—one factor in a new index to assess candidate strength in such a crowded field. Forty-three percent view him favorably, compared to 45% who view him unfavorably.

Helps explain why Jeb isn't bothering with the August Iowa straw poll. But then, so is pretty much everybody else, as it's a large expenditure on a retail politicking exercise of dubious predictive value. If the Iowa GOP wants to restore the straw poll's relevance, they should move the Iowa State Fair to mid-December, when snow cones would be much less expensive.

The latest poll shows Rubio is the most popular second choice at 12%, an indication of potential strength. Among first-choice preferences, the junior senator from Florida doubled his showing since the Iowa Poll in January.

When first and second choices are combined, Rubio ranks second to Walker, 18% to 27%. “That may foreshadow growing stature,” Selzer said of Rubio.

It also may foreshadow the two individuals standing on the confetti- and balloon-buried stage at Gund Arena (I'm assuming) next summer: the proven, experienced, tested, accomplished, yet youthful everyman executive at the top of the ticket, and his youthful, charismatic, and, yes, Hispanic running mate, whom I think we can safely assume will do nothing to assist the media with its attempts to lampoon him as the twenty-first century Dan Quayle.

Walker-Rubio '16. We could do one helluva lot worse than that.

Incidentally, in case you were wondering who would make the Fox News debate cut from this poll, the lineup would be: Walker, Paul, Ben Carson, Bush III, Mike Huckabee, Rubio, Rick Santorum, Ted Cruz, Donald Trump <sigh>, and Chris Christie.

Exit quote:

Unprompted, poll participant John Accola, 69, a retired federal employee from suburban Des Moines, said he likes Walker partly because the governor doesn't have a college degree.

"It would be refreshing to have a non-university graduate running the country," said Accola, adding that he himself finished college. "There is a difference between education and intelligence and wisdom.”

Uh-oh: U.S. Anti-Missile Interceptors Have "Serious Technical Flaws"

by JASmius

Yet again, the question must be asked: Incompetence, malevolence, or just plain lazy-assed sloth?:

Anti-missile interceptors that would be used to defend the United States against a nuclear attack from North Korea have at least one of two serious technical flaws that could leave them susceptible to experiencing "failure modes" that would result in "an interceptor fleet that would not work as intended," a Government Accountability Office report reveals.

The Pentagon was informed of the issues last summer, reports the Los Angeles Times, but postponed corrections, telling federal auditors that acting immediately would slow down an expansion of the national homeland missile defense system and interfere with the production of new interceptors.

Translation: These anti-missile interceptors had already been purchased, and the Obamagon feared that they wouldn't be allowed the funding to buy replacements, so they made due with what they had, even if they're now reduced to $40 billion worth of Roman candles..

And now, all of the thirty-three interceptors that are deployed at Vandenberg Air Force Base in Santa Barbara County, California, and at Fort Greely, Alaska, have one of the defects. Ten of those same interceptors, as well as eight more being prepared for delivery at some point this year, have both defects, reports the Times.

The flaws, said the GAO, could disrupt systems that are used to steer the interceptors toward incoming enemy missiles. Four of the rockets are at Vandenberg, and twenty-nine are at Fort Greely, and make up the Ground-based Midcourse Defense, or GMD, system. [emphasis added]

Terrific. So instead of their being scrapped as "warmongering" and "provocative" and "unnecessary" in the Era of Kumbayah that President Peacepipe has ushered in, this handful of anti-ICBM interceptors simply don't work. And just in time, too. Which is probably why O didn't bother scrapping them.

Now I'm not an expert on advanced electronic weaponry and ballistics and such, nor do I play one on television, nor did I stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night, but does this not sound to you like it would be a relatively easy fix?:

One of the flaws, the report reveals, is in the wiring harnesses in the kill vehicles. An unsuitable soldering material was used in harnesses in at least ten of the interceptors that remain part of the fleet after they were deployed in 2009 and 2010.

The material is insufficient, the report said, because it is vulnerable to corrosion in the damp underground silos, and could hinder the harnesses' ability to supply power and data to the kill vehicles guidance systems.

I don't know if it's as easy as popping open a hatch and re-soldering the wiring harnesses or if it's one of those pain-in-the-ass situations where you have to tear apart the whole warhead to get at it and then reassemble it all, with the possibility or likelihood of other components getting damaged in the process, any more than the other defective component - called a divert thruster - is plug & play or a plumber's nightmare to uninstall and install.

What I do know is that the manufacturer - Boeing - dutifully informed the Obamagon about the defects as soon as they were discovered, and the Regime's blithe, what-me-worry? response is that "Everything will be fine" and they have no plans to fix either of the defective components, one or the other or both of which is in all thirty-three interceptors that are supposed to be the only thing standing between millions of American civilians and hellish, fiery death, but will instead wind up to be about as useful as Fourth of July hand sparklers.

So you tell me: Incompetence, malevolence, or just plain lazy-assed sloth? And into which category does "just doesn't give a rat's ass" most logically fall?

Gun Violence Increasing Nationwide As Obama DOJ Handcuffs Local Police

by JASmius

Last weekend alone, nine Baltimoreans were gunned down in cold blood. As of last night, the number of homicides in "Charm City" has hit forty....month-to-date.

If only that were an isolated exception, instead of being simply the most recently publicized instance of a trend that is metastasizing coast-to-coast:

Gun violence is climbing in the nation's cities, marking a likely end to the twenty-year national decline in the crime rates, because of changing laws that make it more difficult for police to do their jobs, according to a Wall Street Journal opinion piece.

"Crime is the worst I've ever seen it,' said St. Louis Alderman Joe Vaccaro during a City Hall hearing earlier this month, writes Heather Mac Donald, a Thomas W. Smith fellow at the Manhattan Institute in her article.

In St. Louis alone, shootings are up by 39%, robberies by 43%,and homicides by 25%.

St. Louis is not the only city seeing increases. According to Baltimore police, gun violence in that city is up by more than 60% over last year, with thirty-two shootings occurring over Memorial Day weekend alone, making May the most violent month the city has experienced in the past fifteen years.

Homicides were up by 180% in Milwaukee by May 17th, over the same period from last year. In Atlanta, murders went up by 32% by mid-May, and in Chicago, homicides went up by 17% and shootings by 24%. New York marked a murder rate rise of nearly 13% and gun violence by 7%, and violent felonies in Los Angeles went up by 25%, MacDonald writes.

Even worse, neighborhood level crime climbed even more, with shooting incidents going up by 500% in New York's East Harlem Precinct.

That is the effect; here is the cause:

MacDonald said the rise in crime may be because of the growing unrest over the nation's police departments in recent months, following the deaths of unarmed black men including Ferguson's Michael Brown and Eric Garner in Staten Island.

The deaths have brought riots, and the murders of police officers has also gone up. MacDonald notes that Barack Obama and former Attorney General Eric Holder have "embraced the conceit that law enforcement in black communities is infected by bias," and the media is also putting out a stream of stories about the "alleged police mistreatment of blacks."

As a result, she said, almost any police shooting that involves a black person "no matter how threatening the behavior that provoked the shooting," brings angry protests, and acquittals of police officers for using deadly force often brings violence, with the result being what St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson has called the "Ferguson effect."

This means police are backing away from enforcement activity while the criminal element feels empowered, said Mac Donald, pointing out that similar "Ferguson effects" all happening nationwide as police scale back on proactive police actions.

"Any cop who uses his gun now has to worry about being indicted and losing his job and family," a New York City police officer told MacDonald. "Everything has the potential to be recorded. A lot of cops feel that the climate for the next couple of years is going to be non stop-protests." [emphases added]

"Couple" of years? I'd say it's just begun, Officer, particularly if Barack Obama opts to extend his tenure in office beyond what the Twenty Second Amendment permits, which would do much to help explain the full-court press that is and will be on over the next 601 days to spread his intended race war as far and wide as humanly possible. Michael Brown in Ferguson (St. Louis), Eric Garner in New York City, Dontre Hamilton in Milwaukee, Freddie Gray in Baltimore, Tony Robinson in Madison, Wisconsin, Malissa Williams and Timothy Russell in Cleveland - different incidents where police fault ranged from non-existent to considerable, but all linked to the same false Narrative ("racist" local police) and strategy (demonize, discredit, and federalize local law enforcement), aimed at the same endgame: incite and spread so much violent civil unrest and upheaval that O has a ready-made excuse for declaring and imposing nationwide martial law sometime before the first Tuesday of next November.

Not the most likely path to an illicit third Obama term, but the "Ferguson effect" keeps one more such option open, right alongside another financial panic a massive terrorist attack, or a devastating cyberattack.

Besides, it's not like they're mutually exclusive.

Constitution Radio: Tyranny on the March in America

Host Douglas V. Gibbs of Constitution Radio with Douglas V. Gibbs on KMET 1490-AM airs today at 1:00 pm Pacific, following American Daily Review Radio. The program airs live, so join the conversation, and dial in at 951-922-3532.

I will open today's program with two emails I received regarding articles I have written on Political Pistachio, and the reboot of Constitution Study Radio.

Today's Book of the Week is "Sophie Votes Republican."

Today's Constitution Quest Question of the Week is brought to you by "Constitution Quest Game."

Whatever, Dude: Martin O'Malley To Announce Presidential Bid

by JASmius

And then, there were....oh, thank God, this one's a Democrat:

Former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley is expected to announce Saturday in Baltimore that he will seek the Democrat nomination for president in 2016, launching a long-shot challenge against front-runner [in a pig's eye] Hillary Clinton.

O'Malley is set to speak at Federal Hill Park, in the city he served as mayor for seven years, which beginning last month was ravaged by riots as demonstrators protested the death of a twenty-five-year-old black man who had suffered injuries in police custody. The events led to scrutiny—and criticism from community advocates—of O'Malley's tough policing policies as mayor, a record that he has defended as he calls for improving relations between law enforcement and civilians. [emphasis added]

Doesn't that kill his nascent presidential bid right there?

O'Malley, who joins [Mrs.] Clinton and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders in the Democrat field, has spent months laying the groundwork for a run, with trips to Iowa and New Hampshire, high-profile hires to his political team, and recent e-mails and videos circulated on Twitter, Snapchat, and YouTube about his “special announcement” in Baltimore.

And yet nobody can say exactly why - other, of course, than unfounded ego and unfettered ambition.

But "O-O-O-O'Malley" thinks he has a viable candidacy angle:

He is gearing up to position himself as a [communist] and a fresh face for a new generation, an O'Malley confidant said.

And thus two whole years younger than that old fossil....Barack Obama. Who did the whole "fresh face" routine only seven years ago. Double-M is barely even getting on the caboose of that train, it's so stale.

At fifty-two, he is the youngest candidate in the Democrat contest — a decade and a half younger than [Mrs.] Clinton and two decades younger than Sanders.

Sure, Senator Sanders is a card-carrying geezer personified. But his "progressive" street cred far exceeds O'Malley's because he has never cloistered his Marxism in any kind of PR closet - hell, Sanders doesn't even refer to himself as "progressive" - he's an old-school socialist, by cracky, and darned proud of it. How can the ex-Maryland governor compete with that?

The ex-governor intends to run a spontaneous and non-scripted campaign with heavy emphasis on direct one-on-one contact with voters, O'Malley confidant said.

In other words, his fundraising cupboard is, and will remain, barer than a Playboy centerfold.

Look for him to emphasize his youthfulness, executive experience, and liberal record in Maryland, and to try to draw a contrast between himself and [Mrs.] Clinton, who has faced criticism from reporters and political opponents for running a tightly-controlled campaign.

It's tightly controlled because, as Jonah Goldberg observed yesterday, that's what the Clintons do. It's simply who they are. It reflects Hillary's compulsion to control everything. I would say it's also because she has so much to hide, but after twenty-three years of their corruption and greed and scandals, she is, ironically, as WYSIWYG as it is possible for a greedy, corrupt, power-mad, iron-fisted pol to be. Which is one reason among several why her sequel campaign is going precisely nowhere, in addition to Clinton-fatigue, Obama-fatigue, "running for the third Obama term," a collapsing economy, a collapsing culture, a world dissolving into chaos (of which she is a prime architect), all of which she is lumberingly racing to embrace with all the strength in her flabola-draped arms.

Which means that, with his executive experience, Martin O'Malley should have the advantage over both Sanders and the Empress. But he doesn't, because there's one overriding factor that dooms his candidacy before it even starts: His penis. His Y-chromosome. And his pasty whiteness. Ditto Bernie Sanders. Neither has a prayer at the Democrat nomination. Not because Hillary is any kind of "formidable candidate" (she isn't), and not because she's drowning in filthy lucre (which won't be enough), but because white males no longer have any place in the Democrat Party, at least in its upper echelons. This is the lesson they have learned by the "ascension" of Barack Hussein Obama, who got elected for no other witting reason than his skin color: that identity politics and "historicity" trump everything else. Every issue, every otherwise public concern, every real-world situation - everything. Doesn't matter what they stand for (which, as with O, is hidden until after the election is won), what kind of person they are - you could be a pedofilic ax-murderer, and if you're minority and/or female and a "good progressive" (pardon the oxymoron), you will always have the inside track to the Democrat presidential nomination, now and forever.

The Democrat Party will, quite simply, never nominate a white man ever again. That's why Mrs. Clinton's ill-fated life's-ambition-quest is the floor of presidential possibilities for the American Left. And that's why the Ugly Dutchess will not have a bona fide challenger until you-know-who jumps into the race....

Exit question: Am I just seeing things, or are Martin O'Malley and Chief Justice John Roberts twins that were separated at birth?

American Daily Review: The "Devil's In The Details" Infraction

Federal Waterway Confiscation

By Douglas V. Gibbs

In Oregon I have a piece of property that has a lovely creek that runs through it. Most of the year it is about four feet wide, and four feet deep full of cool, clear, water. Sometimes, there are finger-length fish swimming in it. Seven properties sit along that creek as it works its way from the mountains to a major river that eventually runs into the Pacific Ocean. Mine is the third to last property along the creek's trek, and there is always plenty of water to draw from through our well. Thanks to the creek, the property that offers rural living in the hills near the Oregon Coast includes no water bill, just the need to use electricity to enable the pump to send the water up the hill to the house. President Barack Obama, and the statists in Washington, D.C. want to change all that.

Like many of the other things King Obama does, he is disregarding the United States Constitution, Congress, the courts, the States, and We the People, and the Obama administration is taking upon itself the opportunity to seize dominion over all of America’s streams, creeks, rills, ditches, brooks, rivulets, burns, tributaries, criks, wetlands — perhaps even puddles — in a sweeping move to assert unilateral federal authority.

This is being done through the Executive Branch regulatory agency, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), along with the Army Corps of Engineers. They unconstitutionally claim they have the authority to control all waterways within the United States — and will exercise that authority. . . whether you like it, or not.

"You don't need no stinkin' property rights," I guess they are trying to tell us.

The Founding Fathers, who would already be disgusted about the tyrannical size of the federal government, would be especially disgusted by this totalitarian move that is being done in the name of saving the planet, and keeping those little piss ant citizens in line with the demands of an oppressive, authoritarian regime. Remember, whatever you can screw up, the federal government can screw it up better, and they are constantly poised to prove it.

“We’re finalizing a clean water rule to protect the streams and the wetlands that one in three Americans rely on for drinking water. And we’re doing that without creating any new permitting requirements and maintaining all previous exemptions and exclusions,” EPA head Gina McCarthy told reporters last Wednesday.

The move comes as part of the Clean Water Act and federal officials say they are simply trying to help businesses comply with regulations.

“This rule is about clarification, and in fact, we’re adding exclusions for features like artificial lakes and ponds, water-filled depressions from constructions and grass swales,” McCarthy said. “This rule will make it easier to identify protected waters and will make those protections consistent with the law as well as the latest peer-reviewed science. This rule is based on science.”

You know, the same science that relies on the manipulation of data, and lying to the public, while claiming that the science over global warming is settled as the warming trend comes naturally to an end, and as the sea ice in Antarctica expands.

I wonder how long it will be before they put a water meter on my well, and a governor on it to make sure I don't pull more water out of it than they are willing to allow. You know, so that we can save polar bears, Delta Smelts, and a few political careers.

By the way, if you want to see how well the liberal left statist progressive socialist commie Democrats run a bureaucracy regarding water, just ask Californians. After decades of the Democrats refusing to build more reservoirs and water transportation systems, while limiting the amount of water or facilities Southern California can have, and denying desalinization plants (you know, like Israel uses that turned their barren desert into the most lush area in the Middle East) through environmentalist laws and litigation against every project, when a real drought showed up, now the water-nazis are forcing restrictions on Californians, and there is not enough water (we are being told) to go around, so buckle up even more - unless you are a liberal left elite. . . more on that in a moment.

The courts, including The Supreme Court, has told the Executive Branch it has no authority to seize the powers they are seizing in relation to the Clean Water Act. Then again, Obama was told by the courts that his self-proclaimed Amnesty is outside his authorities, and it hasn't stopped him. In fact, the whole Constitution tells him that most of what he does is illegal, and that doesn't stop him. Regardless of two Supreme Court decisions telling the EPA to back off, the Obama administration claims the new powers they have just added to their cauldron of spells would “not interfere with private property rights or address land use.”

“It does not regulate any ditches unless they function as tributaries. It does not apply to groundwater or shallow subsurface water, copper tile drains or change policy on irrigation or water transfer.”

Senator Barbara Boxer of California, a Democrat fully aware of California's politically induced drought problem, and the top Democrat on the Environment and Public Works Committee, supports the power grab by the Obama administration, irregardless of Congressional involvement, and irregardless of the authorities granted by the United States Constitution.

“The Obama administration listened to all perspectives and developed a final rule that will help guarantee safe drinking water supplies for American families and businesses and restore much-needed certainty, consistency, and effectiveness to the Clean Water Act,” she said in a statement.

House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, Republican, doesn't agree, and said, “EPA’s attempt to redefine ‘navigable waterways’ to include every drainage ditch, backyard pond, and puddle is a radical regulatory overreach that threatens to take away the rights of property owners and will lead to costly litigation and lost jobs. The House is committed to fighting back against this radical policy, which is why we passed bipartisan legislation earlier this month to stop the EPA in their tracks from moving forward with this misguided proposal. It’s time for President Obama’s EPA to abandon these radical proposals, all in the name of protecting wetlands and waterways, that instead will only lead to more American jobs being shipped overseas at the expense of the American economy.”

By the way, here in Southern California, where my primary residence is, I am still fighting the city over a fine they issued, because my lawn died when I quit watering it, during our drought, because city ordinances require 20% living vegetation in a yard, and if you have a lawn, the grass must be living, and be at least 80% of the makeup of the lawn.

In 2010 I was warned by code enforcement regarding a different infraction. After watering my lawn some of the water got on the sidewalk. My neighbor also got a warning, because he was underwatering, and his lawn was overly brown.

The celebrity's lawns, you know, of those hard left liberal Hollywood types, look really green, and their watering has not tapered a bit. The law doesn't apply to you when you are a member of the liberal left elite, apparently.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary

CURL: Obama admin asserts dominion over creeks, streams, wetlands, ditches -- even big puddles - Washington Times

CA drought??? HA HA. Democrats let celebs keep their massive green lawns - US Message Board, Political Discussion Forum

Conservative Voice Radio: Mass Destruction

Conservative Voice Radio, KMET 1490-AM, Saturdays at 8:00 am Pacific.

Host Douglas V. Gibbs, and members (Glenn, Tom, and Jan) of the Banning-Beaumont-Cherry Valley Tea Party go through the issues that matter most to you.

This week's Modern Day Ride of Paul Revere covers the following topics:

- The 'Gotcha' question Republicans are being asked about Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) and if the Iraq War was worth fighting. "Would you have gone into Iraq?"

- How we are losing Iraq.

- China's new islands.

- Why don't Hispanics vote conservative or Republican?

- Memorial Day.

- Hillary, and the book "Clinton Cash".

- National Popular Vote Movement.

- Riots in Cleveland and Baltimore, and racial division in America, has led to a crime wave.

If you missed the broadcast, you can listen to the podcast HERE later.